The PhillipsWatch Blog is a companion to PursuitWatch.org and publishes day to day happenings as well as original stories and commentaries appearing on the website

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

100 mile chase... For failure to signal a lane change?!?

A chase that lasted 100 miles, sometimes at speeds exceeding 100 MPH occurred last Thursday in Missouri. Commentary isn't necessary here, so I'll just post a few excerpts from the Daily Guide story...

Thursday morning was an ordinary day for Officer Derin Richardson when he noticed a Chevrolet Cavalier with two occupants, a man and a woman, that changed lanes on Interstate 44 about 10:34 a.m. without signaling near eastbound mile marker 159 and then ran off the roadway briefly. The Cavalier got off at Exit 161, turned onto Highway Z, and stopped in the parking lot of the Cenex gas station.Richardson got out of his patrol car and began to walk toward Cavalier. Rather than providing his license and registration, the driver, later identified as Anthony Cesar Hervas, 20, of Chicago, gunned the car’s accelerator and fled.

Next:

St. Robert police have ordered stop sticks for their patrol cars, but Gettys said his department’s officers haven’t yet gone through training to use them and they can’t be used until that training takes place. Multiple efforts were made to use stop sticks to puncture Hervas’ tires but all failed until his Cavalier got several hundred yards across the Franklin County line into St. Louis County.

To continue:

While it’s no more possible to have officers train with 100 mph chases than it is to have officers experience bullets being shot past their heads, Gettys said the hundreds of hours per week spent by officers behind the wheel gives them an intensive familiarity with their vehicle and how it handles, and that can be crucial in a pursuit. “Just driving on a daily basis, their accustomed to driving,” Gettys said. “We’re officers but we’re also human beings so we’re always going to get excited, but our training prepares us for that.”

10 comments:

Anonymous
said...

hmmm... the failure to signal is a minor infraction, but when the subject makde it clear he wasn't going to pull over, the more serious violation of evasion is why the pursuite continued. People dont run from the law unless they are hiding something!!!

Adults are not pranksters!!! They make a decision, and in my mind, they decide that no one matters as much as number one. If the police stopped pursuing these idiots, they would probably become more brazen in their actions, not just stop running.

The premise of this site is not to completely stop police pursuits, it is to enact safety policies.

I agree that most adults do NOT flee just "for fun" or "to test their evasion skills." However, I do not agree that having policies in place that keep officers from chasing cars wildly through neighborhoods will promote fleeing. People decide in the heat of the moment to keep going or pull over, and they don't recite current police pursuit policies through their minds before making that decision.

Yes, the initial infraction was the fact that the driver failed to signal-- but the pursuit was initiated because the driver took off when the police officer approached... if that doesn't warrant action I don't know what does. Some constructive criticism for this website: make sure you read ALL of the facts before you post something about it.

Well said to the anonymous person above me. I am actually the one and only Mr. Anthony Hervas . The high speed chance was a great experience but I don't think I would be willing to do it again who else do you know that has a story as cool as this one.

The President of PursuitWatch.org, John Phillips' sister was an innocent victim of a police pursuit in 2001. As a result, his father, Jim Phillips, started PursuitWatch.org in order to promote safer and smarter police pursuits. John has a degree in Political Science from Flagler College in St. Augustine, FL, and is currently doing post-graduate work in the same field at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Fl.